phoe·nix
Pronunciation: \ˈfē-niks\
Definition: A legendary bird which lived 500 years, burned itself on a pyre, and then rose alive from the ashes to live again.
par·a·digm
Pronunciation: \ˈper-ə-ˌdīm
Definition: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

MAC Purchases in February

I went ahead and splurged a little with the MAC Color Forecast Collection this month. I really love purple so I was attracted to the Spring Color 3 items but bought only one of them.The Blush Ombre in Vintage Grape is quite lovely. I was worried that with my pale skin color the darker shade of the blush may be too much and come off kind of cartoon like. However, I have found that if I load my brush with a side-to-side sweep across the pan, when I apply the blusher the darker color is on the bottom 1/3 of the brush only so in essence it is like contouring at the same time as applying the blush that is on the other 2/3 of the brush. This was a real surprise for me and I am very happy with this purchase. It was $25 and the pan is rather larger (9 grams) so I feel like I got a good deal for my money. The Blush Ombres are limited edition so better buy one before they disappear. I had been interested in the purple quad too but once I swatched the Color Stack 1 from the Spring Colour 1 Forecast Collection I forgot all about the quad. It is officially called Crushed Metal Pigment: Stacked 1. It is also limited edition. Four very soft and almost creamy feeling pigments in screw top stackable jars. There is a dark and light purple and a dark and light pink. The colors are: Dark Purple Frost, Light Lilac Frost, Mid-tone Rose Frost & Pale Pink Frost. The consistency of these pigments reminds me of the Volturi pigments I purchased back in November. Very soft and creamy so they have a supper smooth slip when applying them to the eye. The set was $32.50 and you only get a total of 12 grams of product (so figure 3 grams of each color) which would come out to $8.13 per color or $2.71 per gram so when you think about it you are getting a deal on pigments. The new MAC pigments are now 4.5 grams and they cost $19.50 each, which is $4.33 per gram. And as I mentioned earlier, this set is limited edition. While I was there I returned my Back-2-MAC items and picked up a mineralized eyeshadow in Pink Split. The MAC description of the color is "Pink with gold pearl mono/Dirty rose with bronze and pale blue veining (Frost)." It was regularly $19.50 so FREE was an awesome deal with my Back-2-MAC items.The same week as this collection coming out I also bought both of the new Viva Glam Lipsticks in Gaga and Cyndi ($14 each). I love both of them. They are very versatile colors that with the addition of a lip liner and gloss can be worn with just about everything. I will have to get some back ups of both colors. My last MAC purchase in February was a pigment. I love cornflower blue and MAC's pigment called Corn Flower is so perfectly named. It is a pearlized pastel blue with a red-violet flash. It has a nice slip and texture that is smooth. It was the new size pigment but the same old price of $19.50. All in all not too bad for a short month full of new MAC releases. Total spent $112.36.